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Posts Tagged ‘opportunity knocking’

Because I have already written exhaustively about the process and purpose of the last month of class, I will keep my feedback here brief. You can find your scores on the research paper and persuasive essay through the Portal, and the original prompts and guidelines are here:

The brief notes cover the obvious: points lost for packing up early or refusing to participate; failure to utilize online (or offline) augmentation; and so on. Here are the results of our second online-augmented adversarial, from 5/2 through 5/8:

The general notes cover your participation, or they point out success with a particular lesson; there are no notes about online augmentation, however, because there was no online augmentation. And that ought to trouble you as much as it troubles your teachers.

You are in the midst of a final month that depends largely on your ability to use the resources in front of you. You have all the time you need; you have all the documents you need; you have all the access to your teachers that you need. If you work hard and steadily, you will do very well. If you don’t work hard or steadily, you may not do well at all. That none of you took advantage of this last online adversarial, even when given a day in the computer lab to get started, underscores the necessity of resource management. You must track your progress and participation without access to the scores and without being forced, on penalty of a zero, to do work.

This extends far beyond any remaining adversarial discussions—and with your copy of our final calendar, you know when they’re coming—but let’s revisit the original guidelines for augmenting a scored discussion:

Augmenting Point TotalsIn order to encourage students to continue these discussions after the bell dismisses the class, the adversarial format allows for augmentation of point totals:

Any student who wishes to earn additional points after an adversarial lesson has ended—whether or not the student spoke—can do so by submitting an additional writing assignment.

Based on the insightfulness, specificity, and effort evident in the submission, this work may earn additional points toward the daily point total.

The submission must specifically reference in-class discussion, which can be done in a variety of ways:

a. By answering a question in new or greater detail
b. By elaborating on a classmate’s specific comment
c. By explicating passages not mentioned in class
d. By expanding on an essential question of the unit
e. Etc. —there are many ways to earn more points

As always, you should speak to me or send me an email if you need clarification. Remember, there are no traps or trapdoors here; the way forward is clear, but it requires you to start walking.